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Home Secretary and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg discuss the online terrorist threat

The Home Secretary and Culture Secretary met Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook today (23 June).

Today the Home Secretary and Culture Secretary met Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, to discuss progress on an industry-led forum to tackle terrorist content online, end-to-end encryption and working with law enforcement.

Following the meeting the Home Secretary said:

Today was a useful opportunity to discuss the efforts Facebook are making to tackle terrorist and extremist propaganda online. I welcome their commitment to take serious action and to play a leading role in the industry forum announced in March after my last meeting with internet companies.

This is a problem that transcends borders and a truly global effort is needed to make a real difference. The Prime Minister has urged fellow EU leaders to help to rid terrorist material from the internet in all our languages, and gained support for the forum at the G7. We have launched a joint action plan with France and I will be discussing the issue with colleagues from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand next week.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said:

Social media companies bring great benefits to the UK but we need to continue to work together to ensure the public are safe online. Social media companies have a responsibility to protect people who use their technology, and tackle those who use it to promote terrorism, illegal activities or hate. Today’s meeting was a good opportunity to hear what progress Facebook is making in this area, and to discuss what more can be done to keep everyone safe from online threats.

I look forward to continuing to work with Facebook and other companies to ensure that together, we are tackling harms online.

Published 23 June 2017